


Following

by Jezunya



Series: The Pepperony100 Challenge [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: #36 - Love, Angst, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Kidnapping, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Present Tense, Ransom, pepperony100 challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 12:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1387249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jezunya/pseuds/Jezunya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He never does get a straight answer about why she’s leaving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Following

She tells him she loves him and that she’s leaving in the same breath.

He’s not sure which blindsides him more - they’re like two quick punches, a right hook then a left. One surprises the heck out of him and the other just hurts.

He never does get a straight answer about why she’s leaving - why now, after all this time, after all the good and bad she’s seen him do, why she would decide to bring things to a close now. It’s not for lack of trying on his part: he all but straps her to the guest chair in his office, interrogating her with an intensity that would have made him cringe and feel like his head was being held under water if only this weren’t so important.

She dodges his questions expertly, running circles around him like he always knew she could. Finally, she tires of his antics, and he thinks he might have hit on a legitimate cause for her actions. Here everyone thought it was Tony Stark who got bored with people; no one ever suspected he would end up being the boring one.

He wonders at that, but doesn’t say it, because she’s already rising from her chair, her eyes soft and a sad smile creasing her face for a brief moment. She reaches for him and he’s too numb to move as her hand gently cups his cheek and she leans in to kiss his forehead.

She stays there for a moment, her hand on his face and her lips millimeters from his skin, simply breathing in and out with him, and for one tiny instant he lets himself hope that she’ll change her mind, or at least stand here with him just a little longer.

“Don’t come after me, Tony,” she breathes against his skin and he lets his eyes fall closed as she pulls away for the last time.

She lets herself out of the office, walking neither slow nor fast, not hurrying but not exactly reluctant to go either. Tony doesn’t move from his seat against the edge of his desk, but he hopes as he watches her go that he sees resignation in the tip of her head, maybe even regret in the gentle fall of her shoulders. He really is a selfish bastard, he concludes, because he can’t even wish her well right now like she deserves, and maybe that’s one of her reasons. It can’t be fun loving a selfish bastard.

By the time she exits the building, he’s regained enough of his motor functions to pour himself a drink and go stand at the window overlooking the front lot. He sees when she comes out; even from this height, her hair stands out like a beacon, though it occurs to him in a dark, cold corner of his mind that that beacon won’t be there to call him home anymore.

She stands on the curb and doesn’t look up at his office, even though he knows she’d be able to look directly up at him without having to count windows or anything. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t look; maybe she’s tired of seeing him watching her. He takes a sip of his drink and doesn’t move his eyes from her back.

A black car pulls up beside her and a man Tony doesn’t recognize steps out of the passenger side. They don’t embrace, which gives him a small surge of jealous satisfaction, but they converse for a short moment before he holds the back door of the sedan open for her.

It all seems very formal, but now Pepper hesitates for just one second, and Tony is suddenly reminded of flying in on the sight of Obadiah leveling a rocket launcher at her head while she simply stares up at him in horror. Frozen, he thinks, would be the term.

She flinches away when the man reaches for her arm, and Tony’s fingers tighten around his glass, something darker than jealousy beginning to curl in the pit of his stomach. She straightens, though, seeming to collect herself, and steps into the car, calm and cool as ever. The man closes the door behind her and slides back into his front seat, the car pulling away from the curb a moment later. Tony feels his eyes narrow. He takes another drink and watches them drive away, barely moving to even blink or breathe until they’re gone from sight.

When the ransom note comes, she’s been gone for two days and he’s honestly not surprised in the slightest. Pepper’s always stood between him and the world, acting as more of a shield with her thin shoulders and tidy hair than any proud man would want to admit.

Luckily, he’s learned to not be proud.

He supposes this was her attempt to shield him one last time. Her words just before she left him echo through his mind, as they have nearly every minute of every day since he sat down with the Long Beach police to describe in detail the man he’d seen putting her in the car. They try to talk him through it, try to instruct him on how to handle death threats and ransom demands, but to their credit they never do forget that they’re talking to Iron Man and an escapee from a terrorist camp to boot. Tony thinks about Pepper’s eyes and blowing things up.

Whatever this is, whoever these people are, Pepper saw it coming. The police are baffled by why it took them so long to send the ransom note. Tony’s fairly certain it’s because Pepper was supposed to make the demands during her last meeting with him, not hand in her resignation letter and kiss him goodbye. They must not have been very happy with her when they found out she’d cut her ties to the great, the infamous, the wealthy Tony Stark. The explosions in his head get louder.

Between the police, the FBI, and Tony’s own people and resources, they find the group’s location a little over fourteen hours after the note made its way onto Tony’s desk. Pepper’s last words to him echo in his mind as he walks down to his lab, but it’s her first words when she came into his office that morning that propel him forward into the suit.

“I love you, Tony. I hope you know that after all this time. I love you.”

He feels calm, purposeful. Maybe not exactly alive yet, but getting there.

“Don’t come after me.”

Yeah, screw that.

The faceplate snaps down into place, the display already mapping out the route to their hideout.

He thinks of how her eyes looked as she stood in front of him, of her small hands as she leaned in to hold his face between her warm palms. He closes his eyes and the replusors under his feet and in the center of his hands burst to life.

_I’m coming, Pepper._

_I love you too._

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me [on tumblr](http://jezunya.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
